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Eaves, Sens sink Habs in OT

by
Staff Writer
/ Ottawa Senators

OTTAWA - Daniel Alfredsson got his fourth point on Patrick Eaves' power-play goal 4:28 into overtime and the Ottawa Senators stayed perfect in the exhibition season with a 5-4 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.

The Ottawa captain had a hat trick in regulation and Jason Spezza also scored for the Senators, who are 6-0 in the pre-season heading into their finale Sunday night in Washington (5 p.m., Team 1200).

Eaves

Alfredsson opened the scoring 17:53 in, added a power-play goal in the second, and got his third goal of the game 14:15 into the third to put the Senators up 4-2.

Montreal came back to tie it on goals by Andrei Kostitsyn and Mark Streit 2:01 apart later in the third.

Kostitsyn drew Montreal within 4-3 just 10 seconds after Alfredsson's third goal later when he scored at 14:25, and Streit brought the Canadiens even at 16:26 when he beat Martin Gerber with a slap shot from the point.

Defencemen Mike Komisarek and Josh Gorges also scored for Montreal, which ended the pre-season at 4-4.

Carey Price, Montreal's highly-touted goaltending prospect, replaced Cristobal Huet at the beginning of the third and made eight saves in his final bid to make the opening night roster. The Canadiens open in Carolina on Wednesday.

Price stopped Chris Kelly's backhand 2:28 into overtime and made a fine pad save on Alfredsson's point shot with 44 seconds remaining with the Canadiens shorthanded after Mikhail Grabovsky was sent off for hooking at 3:29.

Eaves gave Price little chance on the winner when he redirected Alfredsson's pass across the goalmouth inside the right post from the edge of the crease.

Gerber, who has appeared in all six pre-season games and will start the season opener Wednesday in Toronto, made 35 saves in his fifth pre-season start after the Senators decided to allow Ray Emery more time to recover from off-season wrist surgery.

Emery stopped 7-of -9 shots while playing the first two periods of Tuesday's 4-2 win over Philadelphia before Gerber replaced him for the third.

Ottawa recalled goalie Brian Elliott from Binghamton of the AHL earlier in the day.